This application seeks partial funding for a FASEB Summer Research Conference on Mechanisms of Liver Growth, Differentiation, and Molecular Pathogenesis of Hepatic Diseases, to be held July 27-August 1, 2002 in Snowmass, Colorado. The major goal of this conference is to foster interactions between researchers in the critical area of liver growth regulation with implications to liver disease. The liver has become one of the best models for understanding basic aspects of cell and tissue growth in an organismal context, providing insight not only into hepatic diseases, but also the development, function, and interactions of various organ systems. Liver is now increasingly viewed as a xenobiotic sensor and the identification of several xenobiotic receptors has opened up new vistas of research involving molecular, gene targeting, genetic and proteomic approaches to discern the complexities of signal transduction in intermediary metabolism. This conference will continue recent efforts to refocus the meeting so that more contemporary areas of liver research will be included and more junior investigators will have an opportunity to present their work. Specifically, greater emphasis will be placed on how basic research on the regulatory systems, such as transcription factors and receptors, intermediary metabolism, and immunological processes, impacts hepatic pathophysiology and enhances mechanism based approaches to the clinical management of liver diseases.